Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has refused to rule out McLaren winning both Formula 1 titles after Max Verstappen's 23-second defeat to Lando Norris at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Verstappen had returned from F1’s mid-season summer break with a 78-point lead over Norris, while Red Bull was 42 in front of McLaren in the constructors’ standings.
The latter gap had already been closing steadily due to Sergio Perez’s poor performances in the other RB20 – and McLaren remains on course to catch Red Bull around Singapore after Norris’s win on Sunday at Zandvoort – but the size of Verstappen’s latest defeat has set alarm bells ringing in the Red Bull camp about his chances of securing a fourth straight world title.
The gap between the two drivers is now 70 points, while Red Bull’s constructors’ lead is down to 30, with nine races left in the lengthy campaign.
Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com after the "alarming result" at the Dutch GP, Marko said: “If you look at his fastest lap – from Lando – in his very last lap without DRS, [he did a] 1m13.8.
“So, as Max said before the summer break, the team has to work harder and must find improvements because like that his championship is in threat.”
When asked to clarify which championship he was referring to, Marko replied: “Both, both, both.”
Marko also outlined how Red Bull had expected to win the race once Verstappen passed polesitter Norris at the start, only to be baffled at how easily the Briton recovered, given team-mate Oscar Piastri could not pass Charles Leclerc’s slower Ferrari for third later on.
Marko put this down to a set-up choice of adding rear wing levels to increase downforce on Verstappen’s car backfiring.
“We believed if he wins the start, we can win the race,” Marko said. “But what was strange [was] Piastri was nearly the same speed as Lando and once he got behind Leclerc, it was over.
“But when Max was caught by Lando he just passed on and went away, so I don’t know what’s the difference and why.
“But, the main thing was our tyre wear was much worse than the McLaren and there was nothing [to be done].
“Also on the set-up, maybe we put more wing on Max – Checo did have less wing, and in the second stint I think Checo was faster than Max. So, maybe that was the wrong decision.”
After McLaren brought a big update to its MCL38 that worked very well at the high-downforce Zandvoort layout, Marko insists Red Bull now must bring its own developments to "every race" to return to the victory levels it has not reached since late June’s Spanish GP.
“There are a lot of ideas and different ways,” he said of Red Bull’s development plans. “But because of the summer break we couldn’t do anything - but we have to do something.
“It goes together. We must understand the car better, that there is more balance because with more balance it’s more confidence for the driver and less tyre wear.
“But the updates have to bring an improvement – not only theoretically, also time-wise.”
Marko added that “it’s obvious” McLaren’s upgrade “steps are working very well” and feels “that’s the difference” in how Red Bull has gone from dominating early in 2024 to being on the receiving end of a drubbing at Zandvoort.
“We also had some upgrades,” he continued. “But time-wise it didn’t show the same result as they showed on the simulations.”
